Charge for Job Postings
How to price and structure your job posting packages.
Job posting fees are the foundation of job board revenue. Employers pay to list their open positions, and you earn revenue with each posting. Most boards charge between $50 and $600 per listing depending on niche and visibility options.
How job posting fees work
The model is straightforward: an employer creates an account, selects a pricing plan, pays, and posts their job. The listing remains live for a set duration (typically 30 to 60 days), then expires. If the employer wants to relist, they purchase again.
Setting up pricing in Cavuno
Cavuno's pricing plans let you create tiered packages with different posting limits, durations, and featured placement options. Go to Board settings, select the Monetization tab, and create plans under the Pricing plans section. See Create pricing plans for the full setup guide.
Pricing strategies
Research your market
Before setting prices, understand what other boards in your niche charge, what features their premium tiers include, and what the average salary is for the jobs you list. A board listing $150,000 tech roles can charge more per posting than one listing $40,000 retail positions.
Pricing benchmarks by niche
Typical job posting fees vary by industry:
| Niche | Standard posting | Featured/Premium |
|---|---|---|
| General | $50 to $150 | $150 to $300 |
| Tech/IT | $200 to $400 | $400 to $600 |
| Healthcare | $150 to $300 | $300 to $500 |
| Executive | $300 to $600 | $600 to $1,000+ |
| Remote work | $250 to $400 | $400 to $600 |
Value-based pricing
A common formula is to price at 0.5% to 1% of the role's salary. A $100,000 job posting might support a $500 to $1,000 fee. Higher-volume, lower-salary roles support lower fees but can make up the difference in volume.
Creating pricing tiers
Most successful boards offer two to four tiers. The goal is to give employers a clear choice without overwhelming them.
Example tier structure
Basic ($199): 30-day listing with standard placement and a company profile.
Standard ($349): 45-day listing with category highlighting, social media distribution, and company logo display.
Premium ($599): 60-day listing with homepage featured placement, email distribution to subscribers, priority support, and a company spotlight post.
What to differentiate across tiers
The levers you can use to distinguish tiers include listing duration (longer for premium), visibility (featured placement on homepage and search results), distribution (social media shares, email alerts), branding (logo display, company highlights), and support (priority responses, posting assistance).
Featured listings
Featured listings are the simplest upsell. They give a job prominent homepage placement, visual distinction like a highlighted border or badge, and priority positioning in search results and category pages.
Featured premiums typically run 50% to 100% above standard pricing. If your standard listing is $199, a featured upgrade at $349 represents a 75% premium that many employers are willing to pay for the visibility boost.
Duration considerations
30 days is the industry standard because it creates urgency, keeps content fresh, encourages repeat purchases, and signals an active hiring market. Premium tiers can extend to 45 or 60 days as an added benefit.
Shorter durations are generally better for your board's health. Stale listings make a board look inactive, which hurts both job seeker engagement and employer confidence.
Discounts and promotions
Strategic discounts drive volume without permanently lowering your prices.
Launch pricing: offer 50% off for your first 50 employers. This creates early adopter momentum and generates testimonials you can use to attract more employers.
Bulk discounts: 10% off for 3 jobs, 15% off for 5, and custom pricing for 10 or more. Cavuno's bundle plans let you set this up directly.
Seasonal promotions: time discounts around new year hiring pushes, industry conference seasons, or graduation periods for entry-level boards. Use discount codes to run these campaigns.
Free vs. paid
Free postings make sense during launch (to build content and attract job seekers), for nonprofit organizations, and for community partners. Once you have consistent organic traffic and proven job seeker engagement, transition to paid.
When you make the switch, announce it in advance, grandfather existing free posters for a period, start with competitive pricing, and demonstrate value by sharing metrics like monthly visitors and application rates.
Measuring success
The metrics that matter for job posting revenue are conversion rate (visitors to paying customers), average order value (revenue per transaction), post-to-application ratio (quality indicator that proves value to employers), and employer return rate (a satisfaction signal that predicts long-term revenue).
Optimize pricing based on data, not assumptions. If employers aren't converting, your price may be too high for the value you're currently delivering. If every employer buys without hesitation, you're probably underpriced.